A LOOK AT THE FIRST DUNN TRIAL

Related Dunn coverage

Video: Michael Dunn police interview

Dunn explains what happened

Police tell Dunn that Jordan Davis, 17, didn't have a weapon

8 p.m. Update: The jury says it would like to watch the video Thursday. They’ll go back at it tomorrow at 10 a.m.

7:45 p.m. Update: The jury asks if it can watch the Gate video in the morning or as soon as possible. Judge Russell Healey is going to let jurors decide if they want to watch the entire video (20 minutes) now or Thursday, but he doesn’t foresee continuing tonight.

That was the advice Assistant State Attorney John Guy had for the jury before they begin deliberating on whether Michael Dunn is guilty of murdering 17-year-old Wolfson High School student Jordan Davis.

Guy got up to rebut Dunn’s attorney, Cory Strolla, who said that prosecutors had failed to prove that Dunn didn’t act in self-defense.

Dunn shot Davis after the two argued over loud music at a Southside Gate gas station during Black Friday in 2012. Dunn has said Davis threatened to kill him, had a shotgun and was getting out of his car and advancing toward him when he opened fire.

No weapon was ever found, but Strolla said prosecutors never proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the other three teenagers in the vehicle didn’t dispose of the gun before police arrived.

But Guy belittled that idea during his rebuttal.

Strolla said the gun could have been hidden in a plaza parking lot connected to the Gate. Police didn’t search that lot till four days after the crime.

But Guy said the fault for was with Dunn. He fled the Gate station after the shooting and then returned to Brevard County the next morning, where he was arrested.

Had Dunn stayed at the Gate or called 911 that night, police would have known to search the plaza parking lot, Guy said.

But Dunn fled the scene, and he fled because he knew he’d done something wrong, Guy said.

Guy also said there was no gun because people saw the three surviving teenagers in the Durango when they fled into the plaza parking lot, and those witnesses testified they never saw a gun being thrown out.

Guy also told jurors that Dunn deliberately killed Davis knowing he was unarmed.

“That defendant didn’t shoot into a car of kids to save his life,” Guy said. “He shot into it to preserve his pride.”

Dunn told the teens in the Durango to turn their music down. Dunn ordered it turned up and cursed at Davis, witnesses said.

“Jordan Davis didn’t have a weapon,” Guy said. “He had a big mouth, and it cost him his life.”

Guy said Dunn’s claim of self-defense has been contradicted by the physical evidence, witnesses at the scene, and his own fiancée, Rhonda Rouer.

Rouer testified Tuesday that Dunn never told her he saw Davis with a gun. Dunn has said he did tell Rouer that night, but she was too hysterical to remember it.

Acting Circuit Judge Russell Healey is now reading the jurors their instructions. After that concludes the jurors will begin deliberations.

3:30 p.m. Update: John Guy, one of the three prosecutors leading the case against Michael Dunn, said how did Jordan Davis get out of the SUV when everybody’s said Dunn parked his car so close. The defendant said he couldn’t get a common courtesy. He said self-defense is self-defense, it didn’t matter that he left. But it did matter. He asks wouldn’t somebody see a guy with a shotgun get out of the SUV, which nobody testified to except Dunn. He says Dunn is as much to blame for police not searching the plaza because he didn’t report it. If he called and told them what happened, the plaza would have been searched. Dunn said it was a waking nightmare. But for teens in that vehicle, it was a real nightmare, Guy says. Guy brings up the jailhouse letter where Dunn called the teens “thugs.” He brings up Dunn’s statement to police, “I’m at a loss to justify what I did.” The reason it’s beyond a reasonable doubt is that justice requires truth. Guy says a group of boys, listening to music, having struck out at a mall, heading to another mall … and somebody gets offended. They pull out a gun at point-blank range, so close the door can’t open. What is that, Guy asks. “To the living we owe respect. But to the dead, we owe the truth,” Guys says as he closes. Judge Russell Healey gives the jury a 10-minute break before jury instructions.

3:10 p.m. Update: Assistant State Attorney John Guy is now wrapping up the closing arguments for the state. He says this isn’t a case of self-defense, it’s a case of Michael Dunn’s self-denial. The police officers didn’t sleep through that night like the defendant did, they worked, he says. He goes on that Jordan Davis didn’t have a weapon. He had a big mouth. And it cost him his life. He says to think about it: If Davis had gun, Dunn would have told his fiancee. If Davis said this expletive is going down, he had a shotgun and was as mad as Dunn said, he would have shot Dunn as he got and loaded his own gun. If Dunn had acted in self-defense, he would have called police and his story wouldn’t have changed so many times, Guy says.

3 p.m. Update (by Andrew Pantazi): Cory Strolla finished his closing statements in the case of Michael Dunn, who is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 17-year-old Jordan Davis. Strolla tried to discredit most of the state’s witnesses.

He said that if he weren’t a lawyer, he’d be a dentist because he had to pull teeth out of each witness, asking questions three or four times to get a yes or no answer.

He also pointed out that many of the police officers answered questions by saying it wasn’t their job to do what he asked.

For example, he kept asking former associate medical examiner Stacey Simons if she had read a toxicology report. She kept repeating that was the job of the toxicologist and not her job. He kept saying she wasn’t answering his question, so he would repeat the question. This lasted several questions.

He also pointed out that it took police days before they searched the area for a gun that Davis’ friends may have hidden.

Strolla also read from the Stand Your Ground instructions, telling jurors that the state must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Davis wasn’t attempting an aggravated assault.

Jurors must believe Dunn did not have any reason to believe he was under threat.

He also told jurors that this was his last chance to talk to them, though the state would get one last rebuttal.

“I’m going to be screaming inside of my head that I want to rebut what they’re saying,” he told them.

2:30 p.m. Update: If Michael Dunn was not engaged in illegal activity and he was threatened, he had no duty to retreat, his attorney says in closings. Cory Strolla repeats he had to ask three or four times of every witness to get a simple yes or no. Strolla finishes his closings, and the judge takes a 15-minute break.

2:20 p.m. Update: Defense attorney Cory Strolla points out Stacey Simons is a former associate medical examiner, not a ballistics expert. “They bring in the medical examiner to talk about bullets and firearms,” he says. He also disputes her statement that Davis couldn’t have been shot while standing up. He uses a mannequin in front of jury to discuss the gunshots that hit Davis. He says Davis could have been shot and still jumped into the Durango. Strolla says the trajectory rods “defy the laws of physics.” The state can’t change the laws of physics no matter how much they want too, he says about gunshots. This isn’t the Matrix, bullets don’t move, they go straight.

2 p.m. Update: Defense attorney Cory Strolla points out what an emotional wreck Michael Dunn’s fiancee was on the stand. She couldn’t even walk. How could she remember everything. Imagine what she was like after the shooting. Which is what Dunn kept saying. It contributed to their irrational state of mind in fleeing and not calling police. It’s unrealistic to think a man with a reputation for peacefulness would snap because a teenager called him a bad word, Strolla says. He points out the State Attorney’s Office didn’t get sworn statements from the teenagers till four days later. They even met with Jordan Davis’ father first. They had time to get their stories straight. They could have interviewed and videotaped the teens the night of shooting, but didn’t, Strolla says.

1:45 p.m. Update: Michael Dunn’s attorney encourages the jury to watch the police interview over and over again. Cory Strolla says Dunn never wavered until the detectives bullied him. What does detective Marc Musser tell him, he asks. In Musser’s own words he told Dunn they know about guys like these. In Jacksonville they’ll shoot you if you ask them to turn down their music. The cops knew they messed up by not searching the scene for days. They didn’t search plaza parking lot till Nov. 27. The crime occurred Nov. 23. And they were only there 40 minutes that Nov. 27, Strolla says.

1:30 p.m. Update: Defense attorney Cory Strolla starts his closing arguments. He immediately says every citizen has a right to defend themselves. He emphasizes it is the state’s burden prove beyond reasonable doubt. He says Michael Dunn did nothing to provoke Jordan Davis and his friends. He just asked them to turn the music down. The only word of hate, he says according to prosecutor John Guy, was about music. Strolla says the prosecutors tried to dehumanize Michael Dunn by not using his name. They just called him “defendant.” Strolla says the witnesses were bad witnesses because he had to ask two to three times for answers to his questions. Strolla silently counts off 3 minutes to show jurors how long it is. His point is that three minutes was a long time to hide a gun. He brings up how police didn’t search the plaza or that area that night. When he asked the detective about it, he said it wasn’t his job.

12:45 p.m. Update (by Larry Hannan): There was no gun.

Those were the first words Assistant State Attorney Erin Wolfson repeated multiple times to the jury in Michael David Dunn’s trial during closing statements Wednesday morning.

During the about 90 minutes Wolfson spoke, she reminded jurors of that fact, again and again and again.

Wolfson also reminded jurors that Dunn, a 47-year-old Brevard County man, fired at the Dodge Durango that 17-year-old Jordan Davis was in again and again and again.

Dunn is accused of the first-degree murder of Davis and the first-degree attempted murder of three other teenagers in the Durango. Dunn fired 10 times after he and Davis exchanged words about the loud music coming from the Durango in a gas station parking lot.

Dunn has said Davis threatened to kill him and had a shotgun in the SUV before he fired in self-defense. The other teenagers in the vehicle and witnesses at the scene said that didn’t happen. No weapon was found.

The question of whether that gun could have existed may be the key to the trial. Wolfson spent much of her closing argument insisting there was no gun and said Dunn knew there was no gun when he shot Davis.

Defense attorney Cory Strolla is likely to argue this afternoon during his own closing statement that police didn’t search the area around the Gate gas station until days after the shooting, and it’s possible the three friends could have hidden a firearm.

But during her closing statement, Wolfson said it was unreasonable to believe a gun existed.

After Dunn fired at the Durango, the SUV briefly fled into another parking lot, but returned about two minutes later when the teenagers realized Davis had been shot. Strolla has argued that was when the gun was likely disposed of.

But Wolfson reminded jurors no one at the Gate, including other people coming out of the store, saw Davis with a gun. She also reminded jurors that two people coming out of a restaurant in an adjacent plaza saw the Durango speed into the parking lot, and they didn’t see any of the teenagers toss a gun.

Dunn also fled the scene with his fiancée, went back to his hotel that night and ordered a pizza, then returned home to Brevard County the next day.

Strolla has argued his client was in shock and was planning to turn himself in. But Wolfson said he fled the scene because he thought he’d get away.

“The only one who left the scene was the defendant,” Wolfson said. “Because he knew he’d done something wrong.”

Dunn’s story also has inconsistencies, Wolfson said.

Dunn said he told his fiancée, Rhonda Rouer, that he saw Davis with a gun that night. Rouer said he never told her that.

“Wouldn’t that be the first thing out of her mouth?” Wolfson said, indicating that Dunn’s fiancée would have remembered if Dunn told her about the gun.

Dunn also said Davis got out of the car, but witnesses said he never left the vehicle, and the medical examiner said the shot that killed Davis couldn’t have hit him if he wasn’t sitting in the car.

Dunn told police after he was arrested he’d had one drink earlier in the day when he’d actually had three or four.

He also claimed he feared the teenagers and their friends would come after him. But he didn’t bring his gun into the hotel that night and didn’t get it when he went out later to walk his dog, Wolfson said.

Wolfson also said that to believe Dunn’s story required the jury to believe the teenagers in the Durango, the witnesses at Gate and the plaza parking lot, police and paramedics and Dunn’s own fiancée were all conspiring against him.

That’s not realistic. And the only realistic option is that Dunn killed Davis knowing he was no threat to him, Wolfson said.

Strolla will address the jury after the break about 1 p.m. with the prosecution then getting one last rebuttal. The case is likely to go the jury late this afternoon.

12:05 p.m. Update: “This defendant may have silenced Jordan Davis. But he cannot silence the truth. He cannot silence this jury,” Erin Wolfson says in her final couple of closing statements. The judge has called for a break.

Noon Update: Assistant State Attorney Erin Wolfson goes into more inconsistencies from Michael Dunn’s stories compared to witnesses. She mentions again that nobody else saw Jordan Davis out of the SUV. Several things he testified about the boys saying “cracker,” “kill that mother — —” and “this — — is going down” he never told police. What Dunn actually said was “You’re not going to talk to me that way,” not “You’re not going to kill me.” And back to not telling fiancee Rhonda Rouer about the gun. Wolfson says Dunn was asks multiple times in court whether he told her about it, and he said yes more than once. But she said no, no and no. He never told her. How did he forget to tell her? Wouldn’t that have eased her mind that he did this in self-defense, Wolfson says. Dunn also said he called neighbor in law enforcement for advice, when in fact the neighbor had called him on something else. And Dunn never mentioned what happened, she says.

11:40 a.m. Update: “Nine shots hit that car. The defendant left the scene unscathed,” prosecutor Erin Wolfson says. Michael Dunn even got out of his car to fire the last volley. Is that a man in fear, she asks. And if he thinks they have a shotgun and are getting away, wouldn’t he call police? Wolfson goes back to fiancee Rhonda Rouer never being told about the firearm or any weapon. Wolfson then goes over the charges against Dunn: first-degree murder, attempted murder for the others in the SUV and shooting a deadly missile. She also goes back to the defendant shot “round after round after round” phrase, at least the third time she’s said it.

11:20 a.m. Update: Erin Wolfson, the assistant state attorney handling the first part of closing arguments, reminds jurors that Michael Dunn never said a word about a gun to the “love of his life.” Wouldn’t that be the first thing you would say? “I shot someone because they had a gun pointed at me.” But she confirmed he didn’t say it right after it happened, at the hotel or on the two-hour drive home. Dunn learned Jordan Davis was dead about 1 a.m. in his hotel room and told no one, Wolfson says. “This defendant didn’t tell anyone because he thought he’d gotten away with murder,” she says. He wasn’t concerned anyone was hurt. If Davis had a shotgun in his lap and saw Dunn going for his pistol, wouldn’t he have shot first, Wolfson points out. That’s because there wasn’t a shotgun, there wasn’t a stick or a weapon. Then Dunn put his gun back in the glove compartment. Is that an act of fear, she asks.

11:10 a.m. Update: Prosecutor Erin Wolfson reminds jurors that the medical examiner said the shot that killed Jordan Davis could not have hit him if he was standing up. The fact that Michael Dunn fired so many times proves premeditation, she says. Every step in this process was under Dunn’s control. This defendant was disrespected by a teenager and he lost it, she says. Dunn’s behavior in fleeing after shooting shows he committed murder and wasn’t acting in self-defense. “He fled the scene and notified no one,” she says. The teens didn’t flee. They had nothing to hide. But what Dunn did was wrong.

10:55 a.m. Update: Michael Dunn got angrier and angrier at the loud music. Then “this defendant went crazy,” prosecutor Erin Wolfson said during closing arguments. “I’m not quite sure how you de-escalate a situation when you’re the one who lowers a window, pulls it back up and lowers it again.” He wasn’t shooting at the tires, he was shooting at the middle of the door, she says. He was shooting to kill. He pulled his gun out and immediately started firing. He wasn’t brandishing it to back them off. She plays the audio of the shooting, with the clear sound of multiple gunshots, and shows photos of the Dodge Durango with all the bullet holes. She says Jordan Davis was not outside the SUV.

10:45 a.m. Update: Prosecutor Erin Wolfson says this defendant fired round after round after round into that SUV, nine, 10 times. She again repeats “round after round.” Tommie Stornes was driving away for their lives when four more rounds were fired.

10:30 a.m. Update: Assistant State Attorney Erin Wolfson has started giving closing arguments for state. Starts off saying there was no weapon in Durango,

INITIAL STORY

A jury’s decision on whether to convict Michael David Dunn of the murder of 17-year-old Jordan Davis may hinge on a parking lot 100 yards away from the scene and several untruths exposed during trial.

After Dunn, 47, opened fire on a Dodge Durango with Davis and three other teenagers inside, they fled to that gas station parking lot to get away. Prosecutors say the shell-shocked three teenagers with Davis returned within a minute or two to call police and get help.

But defense attorney Cory Strolla has repeatedly argued that Davis had a gun that police never found. He says the other teenagers got rid of it by throwing it on a roof, putting it in a trash bin or stashing it in the bushes of that parking lot and either retrieving it later or getting a friend to come and get it.

Police didn’t cordon that area off at the scene nor search there until a few days later, Strolla said.

Dunn said he shot in self-defense because Davis was going to shoot him. The other teenagers in the SUV said there was no gun, and although there was cursing, there were no threats.

Closing statements in the case are expected to begin about 10 a.m. Wednesday. The defense is likely to point out that the parking lot wasn’t searched until four days after Davis was killed, which is enough reasonable doubt for Dunn to be acquitted.

The prosecution is likely to hammer at several contradictions that they’ve caught Dunn in during testimony. They center mostly on Dunn saying he told his fiancee about the gun he saw, he called a law enforcement neighbor afterward and that Davis had stepped out of the SUV. All were discredited in some fashion.

The case is expected to go to the jury late Wednesday. Dunn is charged with the first-degree murder of Davis and the attempted murder of the other three teenagers.

I hate the 600 that rioted on Christmas. I hate the ones that rioted when the Lakers won the championship. And I hate the one that refused live in a polite society and feel that everyone needed to listen to his vulgar thug music.

I hate the 600 that rioted on Christmas. I hate the ones that rioted when the Lakers won the championship. And I hate the one that refused live in a polite society and feel that everyone needed to listen to his vulgar thug music.